I’m sure every reviewer who is also a musician had a moment where all you heard was the opener and an automatic “hell yeah” just starts spilling out of your mouth. Just “hell yeah” spilling out very involuntarily. You don’t even know you are saying it! So goes the practice when hearing a nice crisp roll of an acoustic guitar and steady drums. Then, the vocals of London singer-songwriter Ru Kai appear with a cool demeanor. While the arrangements may give a “cool” and even “rugged” rock n’ roll nature, the lyrics give a sense of uncertainty.
“Sentimental ain’t so helpful when it’s dragging on/Lifting heavy, you’ve been carrying on your own too long,” Kai warns in the first or third person. As the song is described to be talking about “renewal and the challenges of releasing outdated habits and ideas of ourselves that no longer serve us”, Kai wants those listening to remove the dust that comes from holding onto the old in us all. As thick as the grooves may lie, it defies any expectation of such a groove leading to something big or explosive in the chorus. For the most part, the bass-heavy song stays contained. This is on purpose. “The taste of wanting more can lift you up, but break you down,” sings Kai, and that tension between wanting to go big and wanting to stay in the place where it feels the most familiar is a real kind of anxiety. Musically, it can do one of two things: it can demonstrate the feeling of restraint or feel like an overall “cock block”, to put it in less savory terms.
If the concept is something you are willing to sidestep, the song has plenty of rolling chunk to keep your ears engaged. Dig on in.
Written by mynameisblueskye
